Titel: Probate Question
Skrivet av: Ingela Martenius skrivet 2011-08-16, 05:54
The term is barnagods, about which SAOB (Swedish Academy Historic Dictionary) has this to say: - BARNA-GODS ~². ( barne- G. 1:s reg. (1525), NEHRMAN Jur. civ. Reg. (1746) m. fl.) [fsv. barnagoþs, motsv. d. børnegods] (numera mindre br.) jur. minderårig(a)s medel; jfr -ARF 2. G. 1:s reg. 2: 258 (1525). Så länge Hustrun lefwer och Enkia sitter, då stånde hon barnagodset före. RARP 4: 246 (1649). Förmyndaren är saklös när han vårdar barnagodset, som sitt eget. SCHREVELIUS 3: 363 (1849, 1858) jfr A
Child property, first registered in 1525, later in 1746. Old Norse barnagoþs corresponds to Danish børnegods (nowadays less used) legal, the property of a minor (first reg. 1525). [Examples] As long as the Wife lives and as Widow sits, then she stands before the barnagods (1649) [i.e. the widow's claim has priority]. A guardian acts with impunity when he cares for the barnagods as he would for his own property (1849, 1858)
Guardianships of women and their property did last until the woman married since an unmarried woman wasn't legally competent until 1858/1863 (when unmarried women attained majority at 25). Married women weren't legally competent until 1921. (But widows have always been legally competent.) There were however cases of women going to court to be declared legally competent, on the grounds that the guardian was wasting their property; not too many such demands for dispensation were approved in the 18th century but it became far more common in the early 19th century (a precursor to the 1858/1863 laws).
Also worth noting is that illegitimate children did NOT automatically inherit their parents until very late (19th century for the mother, and then only if she had caused a special note to be entered in the church records, 20th century for the father). Children born to betrothed parents counted as born in wedlock. So if someone died intestate the person who inherits must be born legitimate. But not necessarily a child of the deceased - it can just as well be a niece/nephew! If there is a will - not common neither then nor now in Sweden - it should be enclosed in the bouppteckning, and should also be mentioned in the bouppteckning.